On April 1, 2020, Canon announced the latest update to its
varioPRINT series of digital printers. Designed with commercial printers in
mind, the varioPRINT iX-Series offers a wide variety of capabilities to improve
automation, productivity, and media handling. Following on the success of the
original varioPRINT platform that was introduced in 2015, this announcement
demonstrates Canon’s continued efforts to combine digital capabilities with the
quality and productivity of offset.
Canon’s varioPRINT iX-Series
The varioPRINT iX-Series is
capable of producing over 9,000 SRA3 images per hour (320 A4 pages per minute)
with over 90% average uptime and no need for daily calibration or maintenance.
This makes it particularly suitable for customers whose print volumes exceed
one million A4 pages per month. The press also features an extended media range
with compatibility from 60 to 350 gsm, making it compatible with a wide variety
of commercial applications.
The global coronavirus
pandemic is affecting all of us in a variety of ways. Many employees are being
advised to work from home to help slow the spread of the virus, businesses are
attempting to manage their remote workforces, people are practicing social
distancing, non-essential businesses in many communities are temporarily
shutting down, and virtually everyone is wondering how long this will last and
how it will impact our personal and professional lives.
The big question is, how will COVID-19 affect our industry? Keypoint Intelligence very recently conducted a survey of its bliQ subscribers to determine how dealers, vendors, salespeople, and others are responding to the outbreak. People were asked to provide their thoughts on the coronavirus and how they expected it to affect their businesses, and they were given the option to publish their comments anonymously or publicly (i.e., disclosing their names and companies). Many of the responses were quite candid and eye-opening, and a synopsis of subscriber comments is provided below.
For the past few weeks, the business and financial worlds have been reacting to fears surrounding Coronavirus (COVID-19) by implementing measures that will increase public safety and slow down the spread of the disease. As a result, numerous trade shows have been cancelled or rescheduled. The much-anticipated drupa 2020 event was the latest victim of this trend, and has now been rescheduled to April 20 – 30, 2021. This marks only the second time that a 5-year gap has occurred between two drupa events; the first was between 1995 and 2000. To help compensate for this gap, print equipment manufacturers have been proactively organizing virtual events to help keep the market informed about upcoming technologies and solutions.
In addition to the printing and packaging industries, drupa attracts a variety of other vertical markets like consumer goods, luxury goods, cosmetics, banks, and safety technology. According to the drupa website, half of the event’s visitors come to the show with specific investment plans. Of course, these plans are likely to change; in addition to delaying the drupa event, the virus will have an impact on the market as a whole.
As we navigate through the COVID-19 epidemic, many
business-related questions will emerge. For example:
How will the cancellation of major events like drupa affect trade show vendors?
How many more people will make temporary adjustments to their life- and work-related activities to keep themselves safe?
Will this change the way we might work in the future?
Will there be any permanent shifts in applications and/or communication strategies?
How will ongoing industry trends change as a result, and how will these changes affect the printing industry as a whole?
The analysts at Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends are working vigilantly to better understand how COVID-19 will impact the printing market. Armed with new insights, we hope to be able to help our customers and the general market make better strategic decisions that lower their risks in the near future. We will provide more updates as they become available!
If you’d like to subscribe to the COVID-19 feed and have the latest content sent directly to your e-mail, sign up here.
You might be surprised at how much data is flowing through your company. Accounting data, bank accounts, EDI accounts, names and addresses are all data. In the eyes of the State of California that data is now subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and it poses some challenges companies doing business in California, but also companies who do business with constituents in California.
Let’s start with the baseline. CCPA only applies to companies that earn more than $25 million in gross revenue. The other hurdle is that it applies to companies who have data on more than 50,000 people or who earn more than 50 percent of their revenue from selling (or bartering or exchanging for advertising) consumer data. For every company that meets these criteria there are myriad paths to compliance. In fact, because the law is so new, there is some disagreement on who has to comply and how.
HP Indigo, the Israeli maker of production-level EP printers for flexible packaging, recently announced an order for 24 units of the HP Indigo 20000, the company’s 30” EP web for that application. The deal is the biggest to date for the 20000 and, same as last year, the buyer is the Israeli company’s best customer for the printer, ePac Flexible Packaging (Middleton, WI); ePac set the previous record by ordering 20 units in 2018. ePac currently operates 28 of the 20000s at 12 locations and expects to operate 52 at 20 locations after all the latest batch are installed next year. In money terms, the deal is also big: Pricing for one HP Indigo 20000 is unpublished but, even assuming a discount for buying 24, this latest purchase will likely total well over $20 million just for hardware; spending over time for toner, parts, and service will add substantially to that. Read more »
Each year the schedule of shows changes slightly. Some shows merge, others grow organically, and still others disappear from the calendar. This year Print 19 closes out is long run with more than 80 education sessions, the Red Hot Technology awards, TechTalk panels, TechWalk guided tours, and a keynote from Nick Thomson of WIRED Magazine that should be on everyone’s agenda. Once again, Keypoint Intelligence will host the InfoLunch at noon on Thursday, reviewing the most impactful insights you can use to guide your business. Four members of the Keypoint Intelligence staff will also be presenting in the education forums. Print19 promises three days of opportunity for print service providers, in-plant printers, marketing service providers, and the users of those services.
Inkjet technology supplier Memjet recently announced a new category of inkjet heads, inks and supporting print modules called ‘DuraFlex.’ The news marks a major addition to the offerings of the San Diego company, which now supplies thermal inkjet heads and dye-based inks to about 40 makers of systems that print labels, mail, office documents, corrugated, and other applications. DuraFlex will differ from the longstanding ‘VersaPass’ technology inside most current Memjet-based printers because of two main features: the heads are long-lasting and the inks are pigmented, yielding durable print; DuraFlex shares these two features and the “Dura” prefix of Memjet DuraLink, the head technology announced last year for use in industrial print applications. DuraFlex thus is a third generation of Memjet technology, one that will occupy a space between VersaPass (mostly for benchtops, starting in 2010) and DuraLink (industrial printers, just now commercially available), and it will be marketed to OEMs accordingly.
Are you an executive or decision-maker working for an organization that provides printing services? Do you have a plan in place to stay up to date with the ever-changing hardware and software landscape? Are you taking steps to ensure your continued profitability and revenue growth? Remember, your business plan is an on-going, live document that should be reviewed against these criteria on a regular cadence. Print is arguably a more competitive industry than most, as players aren’t just competing with each other but with online print aggregators and online marketing communication solutions. In response to this added competition, as well as continued consolidation of the market, many PSPs have turned to new products to help drive profits.
However, which new products are worthy of investment? And, what hardware will best enable these products? These are the questions that decision-makers must address as they look to the year ahead, on top of assessing maintenance levels, renewing lease agreements, and other factors that can impact the bottom line. With so many variables, updating the business plan for the coming year is an essential step for those at the executive level. Flying blind with no specific set of objectives removes a company’s ability to proactively control their future, leaving them reacting to events as they occur instead of laying the infrastructure to be prepared for market changes.
Personally, I always believed in the potential of B2 digital since it become mainstream at drupa 2012 with several vendors showing or previewing products. Of course, new product concepts often take longer in hitting the market than expected, accordingly it took some time for real placements to arrive at customer sites. In our research we already identified a number of benefits these presses bring, and therefore it was no surprise to see installations rise quickly for several years.
For 2018 we feared to see some slowdown, as the printers with investment interest should have already made their calculation by then whether there is a business case for a B2 digital press or not. But it seems there is quite a bit of continuing interest for the devices, and 2018 placements held up reasonably well, despite drupa 2020 looming large. There are ongoing improvements on the existing devices, but there will be a lot more choice in models at drupa 2020, including next generation improvements on existing ones. But it seems that even in the meantime companies interested in B2 still find new opportunities, business cases, or are still only beginning to explore the capabilities of existing devices.
Every four years the textile production community gathers to learn about what is new in weaving, knitting, accessorizing, printing and production management. In 2019, it was Barcelona’s turn to host ITMA – a premier garment and textile tradeshow event. With over 1,717 exhibitors in 8 halls and over 105,000 visitors from 137 countries, the event was buzzing. While we surveyed the entirety of the display showcase, our focus on digital printing kept us in halls 3 and 8.
Canon, Canon Business Solutions USA, drupa, InfoTrends, Inkjet, On Demand, Print, Printing, Product Release, Production | 
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